


loving you (feels like i'm dreaming)

by neocxxlture



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Divinities Sent To Live On Earth AU, Doyoung Bunny, M/M, Tiny bit of Angst, for Dotae Fanweek 2020, magical realism kinda, theme: Yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25240096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neocxxlture/pseuds/neocxxlture
Summary: They were always supposed to be together.
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong
Comments: 22
Kudos: 97
Collections: (let's get away) just the two of us: dotae fan week 2020





	loving you (feels like i'm dreaming)

**Author's Note:**

> for prompt #5 and day 7 theme yearning <3

🐇

They were always supposed to be together.

It was something that just – was. It was something they both knew, yet something that they never had to think or talk about. It was a fact of being, simple and true and indisputable. It was the way they _were;_ and they were Taeyong and Doyoung, or Doyoung and Taeyong, always and forever, even before they’ve adopted these names for themselves.

🐇

They are sent to Earth together.

They are sent down and they are given human form; they take on human names that feel unfamiliar but right just the same. Doyoung alters his so it rolls better off the tongue, but he loves the sound of Taeyong’s name – so much so that for a few days, he cannot stop repeating it out loud.

It makes Taeyong giggle with mirth.

🐇

Life on Earth is vibrant. It is multitudinous. It is new and strange and unique and unfamiliar and frightening and exhilarating.

It’s challenging, but Doyoung thinks it’s okay. They have a lifetime and each other to figure it out.

🐇

Most surprising of all are the emotions.

Of course, emotions are not anything new to either of them. It is the intensity of them that catches Doyoung off guard – maybe it is the body that makes it so. It’s nothing like he’s ever felt before. Before he was a spark – as a human he is fireworks, going off at all times.

🐇

The Earth turns, time passes, and Doyoung and Taeyong – live.

🐇

Joy might be, by far, Doyoung’s most favorite of emotions.

That seems to surprise Taeyong, when Doyoung tells him one day. Doyoung asks what his is, and Taeyong answers so surely, _Love._

Doyoung feels within his chest something that he cannot figure out – could it be something he has not yet learned to decipher? It is not impossible, really; he thinks there is still much that he doesn’t understand about life on Earth.

He asks, _Do you have someone that you love?_

 _Yes,_ Taeyong answers.

 _Oh,_ Doyoung says. _Who is it?_

Taeyong frowns. _You, silly,_ he answers after a while, an incredulous tone to his voice, _Who else?_

Whatever was weighing down on Doyoung’s chest disappears.

🐇

Doyoung thought that he knows Taeyong through and through – all of him, his entirety, mind and soul – but when Taeyong takes his hands into his own and presses his body close, breath fanning over Doyoung’s cheek, Doyoung realizes that it might not be quite so true.

Palms on skin, Doyoung learns anew.

🐇

Happiness looks incredible on Taeyong. Doyoung can’t help but steal kisses from him, and he basks in the following surprised laughter. He doesn’t think he’s ever heard a more beautiful sound.

🐇

He thinks that it is human nature to make mistakes. Such is the way of life, is it not? You mess up, you learn, you fix it, you go on.

But in the end, despite his human form, Doyoung is not human.

🐇

One day, he uses his celestial powers. He knows well that he is forbidden to do so, that he should not interfere in human matters in this way, but he is doing it for _good,_ so he thinks it is justified.

He is wrong.

🐇

They do not give him a chance to explain.

It happens in a flash – he’s with Taeyong in the garden of their home one second and being stripped of his human form the next. He is brought up, back to the heavens (not home, not anymore), but he learns he is not allowed to stay. He is being sent back to Earth, but his joy is short lived.

He is told, _For the severity of your actions, you will receive punishment._

🐇

He is sent back to Earth as an animal – small and unassuming, prey in the natural order of things.

🐇

He winds up in an unfamiliar place.

The worst part of it all is: he has no idea where Taeyong is, or how to get back to him.

🐇

He travels. Through fields, barren lands, cities, villages, and forests – moving in a direction that feels right based on instinct alone.

He does not know how long it takes. He keeps going.

🐇

By miracle, he makes it to their home. The house looks like it did before, the way Doyoung remembers it – sat in the middle of a golden field, underneath a bright blue sky, bracketed by a forest and far from the village where they bought their groceries every week.

As he comes closer – running – he starts noticing different things: the yard is overgrown with weeds, untended to; the shutters on the windows are all closed; the façade of the house is ruined and crumbling.

He stops at the wooden steps, and listens. It is quiet.

The house is empty.

🐇

Doyoung searches on.

🐇

He wonders at times, is this the real punishment? That they are both on Earth, yet unable to be together anymore?

It hurts – almost too much for his tiny animal heart to bear.

After all, they were always supposed to be together.

He does not give up.

🐇

It’s raining. Doyoung is soaked through his fur to the bone, cold, weak with exhaustion – but he goes on, propelled by something akin to a higher sense, almost a voice somewhere at the back of his mind that tells him to keep running forward.

He comes out of an endless field and into a clearing, from which he spots a hut. There is smoke coming from the chimney.

Shelter, he thinks faintly.

He hops up the few steps onto the veranda and collapses.

🐇

When he comes to, for a moment he thinks he’s still dreaming.

A familiar face is in front of him.

 _Taeyong,_ he wants to scream with the voice he does not have, _It’s you. It’s you._

He tries to get up, but his body is weak.

Taeyong says, _Easy._

It’s his voice. It’s really him. Doyoung can barely believe it. After all this time, he succeeded.

 _I found you,_ Doyoung wishes to say. _I finally found you._

But he can’t.

🐇

Taeyong gives him water and a few cut pieces of carrot to eat. Doyoung is grateful. Taeyong had always taken such good care of him; now is not an exception.

🐇

The rain does not let up for a few more days. Doyoung spends these days under the cover of the veranda, hidden from the raindrops, thinking about how Taeyong is just on the other side of the wall.

🐇

The rain stops, finally. That morning, Taeyong exits the hut – and spots Doyoung lying in the same place he had been lying in for days now. Taeyong gives Doyoung water and food again, then leaves, and comes back only in the evening after the sun has set over the horizon.

He seems surprised when he finds Doyoung in the same place, but Doyoung can’t figure out why until Taeyong says, mostly to himself, _You’re still here._

Of course Doyoung is here. This is where he is supposed to be.

Taeyong frowns. He opens the door of his home, but doesn’t immediately step in. Doyoung watches him, waiting.

Taeyong speaks at last, voice unsure, _Come in?_

Doyoung doesn’t need to be told twice.

🐇

Doyoung starts to think that perhaps the real punishment is that he cannot tell Taeyong who he really is.

🐇

He thought he knew Taeyong through and through, but this – this is a Taeyong that is brand new to him, once more. This is a Taeyong who is sad, and though Doyoung had seen him be sad before, however long ago it was when they were both human, it was not this sort of sad.

Doyoung doesn’t have a name for it. He simply knows that it is different.

🐇

He tries his best to be of comfort to Taeyong, in any way he can, however limited his options. He keeps him company every waking hour of the day – walking with him through the garden, where he grows his own vegetables; sitting at his feet in the kitchenette in the corner of the room when Taeyong cooks; climbing up onto the sofa and settling in Taeyong’s lap when Taeyong sits down at the end of the day with a book in his hand.

🐇

Though Taeyong gives him an old rag on the floor to sleep on, Doyoung opts to jump up on his bed and settle in next to him.

 _Clever bunny,_ mumbles Taeyong the first time it happens, but he does not push him away.

🐇

Taeyong starts to call him _Doie_ _._

 _Because you are cute,_ Taeyong explains to him, fingers scratching behind his ears, _and because you remind me of someone I once used to know._

 _I’m here,_ Doyoung wants to say. _I’m still here._

🐇

He slowly comes to terms with it all; with his new life, and his place by Taeyong’s side.

He figures he’d rather have this, than to not have Taeyong at all.

🐇

**Author's Note:**

> [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/neocxxlture)   
>  [twitter](https://twitter.com/kunyongx)


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